


and then i made a map

by tunemyart



Category: Xena: Warrior Princess
Genre: F/F, y'all ever noticed how many back rubs Xena gets from Gabrielle in S4?, yeah me too!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-14
Updated: 2020-05-14
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:21:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24171979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tunemyart/pseuds/tunemyart
Summary: In which Gabrielle learns the art of the back rub.
Relationships: Gabrielle/Xena
Comments: 29
Kudos: 132





	and then i made a map

It started innocently enough. “My back is killing me,” Xena finally admitted the first time, grumpy from hours of aching in stony silence. “I can’t reach the spot. Can you - ?” 

Gabrielle didn’t really need to be given an excuse to touch Xena, but she wasn’t about to turn down an invitation to do so either. Idly, she’d thought that she should maybe be past a point where the sight of Xena sliding her leathers off her shoulders enough to expose the top part of the broad, smooth expanse of her back affected her as strongly as it did; but then again, that probably wasn’t anything to complain about either. 

And so Gabrielle let her learning fingers learn this too, the map and resistance of the muscles and knots of Xena’s beautiful back, her skin soft and warm and ever more pliable under Gabrielle’s touch ( _Stop searching with your eyes,_ Xena grumbled some more) until they submitted suddenly, accompanied by the sound of Xena’s appreciative moan. 

And huh. Gabrielle thought she could get used to this. 

The next time, Xena asked before she got stiff and grumpy, which meant she was already in a much better mood by the time Gabrielle’s fingers quested with growing familiarity along the smooth terrain of her back. 

“Ah - you’re getting good at this,” she stuttered out breathily with some surprise in her voice as her muscles turned to putty against the pressure of Gabrielle’s fingers. Experimentally, Gabrielle dug in harder, pushing her just past the point of what she knew would be pain. While the equally breathy groan wasn’t a surprise, more of a confirmation of her hypothesis, she couldn’t help her grin. 

“Always the surprise,” she teased Xena. “You’d think by now you’d know I’m a quick learner.” 

“That - uh - that you are,” Xena agreed. “Right there, _ugh._ Don’t stop.” 

The third time, Gabrielle was the one to point out that Xena was holding herself stiffly. 

“I bet I know exactly where the trouble is,” she boasted as they entered their room for the night, to which Xena rolled her eyes. “Bet I can find it in under thirty seconds.” 

“Yeah, well, don’t get too cocky.” But Xena was already loosening the stays on the corset of her leathers. Gabrielle snuck up behind her and took care of her breastplate, brushing her shoulder straps down when it was cast gently aside and tugging Xena’s bodice down to get access to the full length of her back. 

“A full examination this time,” Xena noted dryly, but she didn’t bother to cover her breasts as they were exposed, and she didn’t try to stop Gabrielle or pull her leathers back into place. 

“I told you, under thirty seconds.” 

“Well go on, time’s a-wasting.” 

Gabrielle’s hands were already in motion, and she urged Xena to bend forward and low with the heels of her palms on either of Xena’s shoulders. Having accomplished this, she let the flat of her palms scan downward, searching for the minute spasms that would lead her inexorably to the tension begging for the release she could give it. 

Xena moaned when Gabrielle’s fingers hit the spot, just above the curve of her waist - a spot Gabrielle had been eyeing as a potential problem for a while, though she didn’t say so. 

What she did say was: “Twenty-two seconds.”

“Just get on with it,” Xena said, any irritation she’d been meaning to infuse her voice with superseded by something between appreciation and wanting - which was a combination Gabrielle knew what to do with. 

Xena was as loose as she ever allowed herself to become outside of private baths and sex by the time Gabrielle had been working over her back for a few minutes, having long since taken care of the initial problem, and was making low noises in her throat that were having a delightful effect on Gabrielle. 

“Why don’t you lie down on the bed?” she suggested. “Get a little more comfortable.” 

Gabrielle had been hoping for more of the same acquiescent lassitude Xena had allowed herself to fall into, and was disappointed when it wasn’t given to her. Something less than tension and more akin to suspicion made its way into the muscles under Gabrielle’s fingers, still probing gently, and she was ready with her best _who, me, a simple village girl?_ smile when Xena craned her neck to look back at her. 

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d think this was a seduction,” Xena said, voice already rough with pleasure. 

“Apparently not a very successful one, if you’re asking.”

Xena laughed at that - always a captivating sound, if only for the rarity and freedom of it - which meant that it was actually going just fine. “Oh no, you’re definitely on the right track,” she said. Carelessly she shrugged off her leathers the rest of the way and stood, gloriously nude, to let them fall the rest of the way to the ground. Gabrielle couldn’t help her dumbstruck stare at the sight - always stunning, even after all this time. 

It meant that she was unprepared for a second laugh from Xena, this one more devilish than the first, which preceded Gabrielle finding herself on the bed with Xena straddling her and hovering close. 

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were foiling my seduction,” Gabrielle said, the breathlessness of her voice at the sudden and overwhelming nearness of Xena belying the disapproval implied in her words. 

Xena laughed - a third time. “What, did I spoil your fun?” she asked, but didn’t sound very sorry about it. “How long have you been planning this?” 

“Not _that_ long,” Gabrielle admitted, but it still came out a grumble.

Xena hummed, lowering herself to rub her body the full length of Gabrielle’s. “So… you’d be open to me making it up to you?” she murmured, close enough that Gabrielle could feel it deep in her body. 

Gabrielle was already letting Xena capture her wrists. “Better get started,” she advised. “It might take you a while.”

**Author's Note:**

> hope you're all staying safe out there <3


End file.
